Child At Heart
by Darkrystal Sky
Summary: It all started with a mysterious lake that never thaws. Now, the Summer Twins, Ivy and Zach, must face the same legends they denied for so long; what they don't know it's that they'll take very different roads in belief, that maybe will break their bond forever. Second chapter of the Summer Twins trilogy.
1. Too Cool for Science

**CHILD AT HEART**

**It all started with a mysterious lake that never thaws. Now, the Summer Twins, Ivy and Zach, must face the same legends they denied for so long; what they don't know it's that they'll take very different roads in belief, that maybe will break their bond forever. Second chapter of the Summer Twins trilogy.**

**Before starting, please make sure you've read my fanfiction Frozen Summer, that this one follows directly, or else you won't understand a thing!**

_Chapter 1 – Too Cool For Science_

Darkness. It surrounded her along with a sensation of cold. She tried to move but her body didn't seem to answer.

Was she underwater? Again under the icy surface of that damn lake? No: she could see a feeble light coming from a window on her left. She was in a room, not in her room though. But the window was open, and its glass panels were covered in frost, like her window four months before.

That's right: frost on her window in the middle of August.

Who left the window open?

Someone was there, a shadow among the shadows: he was looking at her with eyes like the clear sky in the middle of Winter.

"…vy…"

Her mother's voice echoed in her mind, singing a song about a frozen boy.

A boy that fell in a lake.

"…Ivy…"  
"She's waking up…"

Jamie Bennett and his imaginary friend, who hanged around that same lake. An imaginary friend able to freeze windows and water.

"Ivy!" _Can you see me?_

Ivy Summer opened her eyes all of a sudden, to see her brother by her side, with a worried expression that changed to a relaxed one when she woke up.

"Ivy, are you all right?" beside Zach stood another person: a man with black eyes and hair and a scruffy beard.

"Dad?" she murmured "Zach?"

"I heard you screaming" the boy explained "Me and the kids ran into the woods, we thought you came across a wolf or something similar. We found you unconscious by the lakeside. You're in a room in Burgess' hospital".

Burgess.

Slowly she started to think properly and realized what happened: she sat on the bed and looked at her brother in awe: "I saw him…" she said

"Saw who?" Zach asked, perplexed

"Jack Frost" she answered, incredulous how silly it sounded, especially in front of her father, who raised an eyebrow.

Zach, instead, looked excited and thrilled: "You saw a ghost?!"

Ivy shook her head: "He didn't look like a ghost. He didn't look even properly alive, however…" she corrected herself.

"Please, stop with this nonsense" their father interrupted them. "Ghost? Spirits? Who taught you this kind of stuff?" he sighed "It was a mistake to let you be involved in this 'mystery detective' thing. It's time for you to find a proper job!"

"Dad…" Zach tried to explain, but the man walked away: "I've got to go to an important meeting now. I'll call you tonight" he said leaving the room. The twins knew he wouldn't call.

When he was gone, Zach turned to Ivy: "Please, continue…"

"No…" Ivy murmured "Dad's right…"

"What?" the boy exclaimed with disappointment

"I probably saw an animal, or a shadow…and my mind did the rest…" she told herself more than his brother.

"Ah…" Zach sat back on a chair "What a pity…"

Some seconds passed in silence, then, with a smile, Ivy asked: "Did you have fun?"

"Uh?"

"With the kids…"

Zachariah's face lightened: "Yes! It's been a long time since I had a good snowball fight!" he laughed "And I discovered something else about their imaginary friend"

"It's really imaginary, then"

Zach laughed: "Pretty much, since he goes along with Santa, the Easter Bunny and stuff like that…"

Ivy rolled her eyes: "Oh, dear…"

Their chat was interrupted by a nurse coming in: "Sorry, visitors' time's up" she told them cheerfully.

Zach kissed Ivy on the forehead: "I've left you your iPod and two changes of clothes in that bag. See you tomorrow, sleep well" he said before leaving.

The nurse remained in the room: "If you need anything, feel free to ask" she said.

"Last night I was cold…" Ivy remembered.

"Oh, I'm really sorry about that!" the woman apologized "My colleague probably forgot to close the window, thank God I noticed few minutes later. I promise it won't happen again"

Ivy nodded.

Later, she passed the time playing with the games in her iPod, watching television and reading a book that a previous patient probably left there. Around seven o'clock a nurse brought her dinner, then turned off the lights.

Ivy was finally getting asleep when a creaking sound caught her attention, and a gust of cold wind entered the room. The girl turned around to see that the window creaked open, it was probably broken. With an exasperated sigh she rose on her feet and walked to close it. When she reached the window, though, she stopped: on the sill sat the white-haired boy she saw at the lake.

"Hi…" he said. Ivy opened her mouth in order to call for help, but the boy was faster as he pressed a hand on her mouth. Ivy shivered, his skin was so cold that her lips began to lose sensitivity.

"Keep silent, I won't harm you" he hissed "Promise me you won't scream"

Ivy nodded rapidly: she wanted to get rid of that frozen touch as soon as possible. When he took away his hand, she immediately rubbed her lips to warm them.

"Who the hell are you?" she finally asked, the boy jumped into the room with unearthly grace and looked around with curiosity.

"You're supposed to know, since you can see me…" he told her, then, with the tip of his staff, touched the window's glass, that was soon covered in ice flowers.

"Jack Frost…" Ivy murmured, he smiled. "Wait a second" she exclaimed "The frost in August on my window. That was you?"

"You made a hole in my lake!" the boy replied, as he was the wronged one, "You deserved a good scare"

Ivy sat on her bed, while her mind worked to give a sensible explanation to what was happening: "What do you want from me?"

Jack jumped and huddled on the TV: "Nothing, really. I just wondered why all of a sudden you became able to see me…" he told her "I mean, you're an adult, you're not supposed to"

"What does 'all of a sudden' mean?" she narrowed her eyes.

"Well, I came to your bedroom before, and I was at the lake since the beginning. You're not bad at singing, by the way, but you need to practice" Jack explained.

It took a while to Ivy to realize what he just said: "You…" she started "You came to my room _while I was sleeping_?! I bet I had nightmares! Who are you, bloody Edward Cullen?!" she exclaimed.

"I don't understand that reference…" Jack replied.

It had to be a dream, her rational mind decided. There was no reason to get angry because of a dream, so she simply layed back on her bed, hoping the strange boy would disappear.

"It's really not nice from you to give me your back"

Shit. Well, it was worth trying.

"You're just a dream, would you please shut up?" she sighed.

The boy looked entertained: "You think I'm a dream?"

"Obviously. There is no such thing as a boy that brings snow and cold all around the world, winter is a natural phenomenon caused by Earth's rotation" she said in a plain voice.

"Oh, I don't really _bring_ winter, let's say I give it a hand…" he stopped "Wait, you say you don't believe in me?"

"That's right…" she answered, Jack looked confused: "But…I don't understand…only people who believe can see me, I almost passed the last 300 years alone because no one did…"

Three hundred years. Barefoot. And he could be around 18 years old. Something clicked in Ivy's mind but she simply decided to ignore it.

"Are you listening to me? Ivy?" he called, but the girl pretended to have fallen asleep. She heard a creaking sound and the air warmed up, the next time she opened her eyes, there was no trace of the boy's presence. With a smile, she finally allowed herself the luxury of sleep.

Jack flew away, he let the wind toss him around like a snowflake, as he always did when he was troubled. Not that it bothered him, anyway.

Suddenly, tendrils of golden sand began to appear below him; Jack smiled as he glided through the air following them to their origin: few miles further he finally found a cloud of that same golden sand, on which stood a very small man that controlled the sand like a conductor.

"Sandman!" Jack called with joy, the man turned around and welcomed him with a warm smile. Jack let the wind drop him on the cloud and he stood there, cross-legged, watching the friend's work.

"Listen, Sandy" he asked after a while "Can a non-believer see us?"

The Sandman looked confused, as he shook his head. A question mark made of sand formed upon his head. Jack begun telling him about what just happened, the Sandman listened to him until the end, then two images formed on his head: a compass pointing North and the moon.

"Yeah, good idea" Jack replied, rising on his feet: "I'll go now. Thank you, Sandy!" he exclaimed as he flew away, the small man waved at him, before moving the cloud to another place.

"A job?" Ivy exclaimed her brother at the phone. He called her on the mobile during breakfast to say a friend of their father called saying he was going to offer them apprenticeship at his workplace.

"And who's this friend?"

"He's called Mr. Mercury, he's pretty famous and really rich…" Zach explained.

"I don't know, Zach…" she started "I'm already busy enough with the exams…"

"He said it won't interfere with our studies, and moreover, when will happen again the opportunity to work in the same place?"

Ivy sighed: "We'll talk about it as soon as they discharge me from the hospital. Apparently, I've got a bit of hypothermia…"

"That would be my fault sorry" a voice coming from behind, made her shriek with surprise.

"You!" she exclaimed as she recognized Jack again. "What do you want, again?" she hissed.

"Ivy?" Zach's voice asked, worried "What happened, who's there?!"

The girl wasn't able to reply as the boy snatched her phone and closed the call: "I'm sorry, but you've got to come with me" he told her "Apparently, you're some sort of anomaly the Guardians need to discuss"

"The Guardians" she repeated. Geez, this dream was far too much long.

"Bunch of guys who protect the children all over the world" he explained "Me, Santa, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman and the Easter Kangaroo"

Millions of questions were buzzing through her mind, but only one surfaced: "Wasn't that supposed to be a bunny?"

Jack grinned: "Yeah, six-feet-tall, boomerang thrower bunny with Australian accent equals kangaroo" he laughed, then he offered her his hand: "Come?"

Ivy didn't even want to touch him again: "Where?" she asked instead.

"North Pole, that's where we gather!" he exclaimed.

Ivy looked startled, but then she shook her head, crossed her arms and looked at the boy with a more determined face. Ok, it probably was a dream, but she wouldn't be the weak, stupid girl in the story. "Well, listen here, Popsicle" she started "First, I'm in a hospital gown, and this is the third time you enter a my room without my permission, so _get. Out._" She ordered him. "At least let me get dressed! Second: how the hell am I supposed to go the North Pole? Santa's got an airline? Is a magic jet trained by reindeers coming to get me?"

"I can fly…" Jack started, stunned by the girl's sudden change.

"Oh, really?" she exclaimed with fake amazement "That's great! Who needs the force of the rotation of the Earth, anyway? Not me, I'm too _cool_ to obey the rules of the Universe!" she went back to her usual self "Well, I can't fly, Tinker Bell, so, unless you have some fairy-dust to spread onto me, the problem remains!"

"Geez, you really talk a lot" Jack exclaimed "But you're right, I can't bring you with me, you'll probably freeze to death up there…"

Ivy rolled her eyes: "Thank you for thinking about it before"

Jack went back to the window (the door simply wasn't an option, uh?): "Get prepared, I'll send you backup" he launched himself into the wind. Ivy looked out but he was already gone.

The girl passed few seconds considering if trying to wake up again or continue to go along with the dream; she decided for the last option, since the other one didn't work the last time.

Ivy got dressed, then she grabbed a handbag and stuffed in her change of clothes, iPod and mobile (would there be signal on the Pole?), along with a bottle of water that remained from the breakfast, then sat by the window, like Wendy waiting for Peter Pan.

No, she told herself, awful comparison.

Few minutes later the last thing she expected happened: in the middle of the hospital room the air warped and a big hairy creature jumped out of what looked like a wormhole.

"Oh, Donnie Darko all over again?" she wondered.

Without many ceremonies, the creature grabbed her and threw her into a portal. It happened so fast she didn't even think about leaving a message for Zach.

But in the end, what the hell, it was all a dream.

**Aaaand I'M BACK! Happy 2013!**

**I came back today and I saw your reviews! Too many! Too wonderful! Yue, you overdid a bit but that's fine! XD So I decided to make you a gift and post this a day earlier than I said.**

**This is the first chapter of Child at Heart, I already finished the manuscript of the whole story, so, even if it'll take a while for me to copy the chapters on computer be sure it has been completed already.**

**I raised the rating, because this story is pretty much darker than the first one, but there will be no physical violence or "hard" scenes. I repeat, this is NOT a JackXOC story, I've got a ship but it's not IvyXJack, although you're free to support it.**

**The chapters will be longer. The last chapter resulted even longer than this one, I hope it's all right.**

**One more thing: I've started reading the books! Unfortunately, in Italy only North's one has been published already, I'm waiting for Bunnymund's one (and they called it The Easter Bunny and the Warrior Eggs, really guys? *facepalm* What's wrong with E. Aster Bunnymund?!). By the way, I fell in love with a certain character from the books, that **_**maybe**_** will appear in the third story. By falling in love I mean he even surpassed Jack in my "favourite characters" list, so I'm serious.**

**Last thing, then I'll let you go: I'm a nerd, so I decided to have fun and put some references to book, movies and tv shows all around. Try to spot them all! XD**

**Coming next: Weird Dream, in which Ivy meets the Guardians and is not amused.**


	2. Weird Dream

_Chapter 2 – Weird dream_

Ivy didn't know what had just happened, but of one thing she was sure of: she never felt so sick in her entire life. Her head hurt and she was about to throw up. She looked around only to see a colorful blur: great, on top of everything she lost her glasses.

"Lost this?" a deep and powerful voice with a heavy Russian accent asked her; Ivy saw the outline of a big hand giving her something: her glasses. She grabbed them and finally took a good look at the man in front of her. He looked old, with a long white beard and hair, but he still looked full of energy. He was dressed in red and on his bare arms Ivy say tattoos with the writings 'Nice' and 'Naughty'. The man examined her with curious blue eyes.

"Welcome" he finally exclaimed "Sorry for the mess: portals always leave you fuzzy the first time"

Ivy studied him with a skeptic eye: "Santa?" she finally asked. Wow, she had to be really nuts to imagine Santa Claus as a sort of fat Cossack with tattoos.

"You call me North" he introduced himself "You are Ivy, right?"

"Yeah…" she muttered "You're not really how I imagined you to be…"

The man laughed: "I know, I know! That's that stupid beverage's fault!" he complained "Now, come! Jack's waiting in the Globe Room!"

Santa, or North, walked away and Ivy could only follow him through a messy huge workshop where many others hairy creatures were working on the toys. They looked at her with shock and surprise, one did even let go of the little robot he was painting.

"Don't mind the yetis" North told the girl, then shouted: "KEEP WORKING! JUST 19 DAYS LEFT!"

Ivy looked around in wonder at the place every kid dreamt of, she almost tripped over a small creature with pointy ears and red robes.

"What exactly am I doing here?" Ivy asked as she and North stepped into a wooden elevator.

The man seemed to think about it before answering: "We're facing something we've never seen before. Since you're a part of this something, and since you are able to see us despite the fact that you don't believe, I thought that you could help us solving this mystery"

Ivy smiled, after all, wasn't solving mysteries her job? "Who are 'we'?"

"The Guardians, I already called them activating the Northern Lights, they'll be here in a blink of an eye!"

Ivy shook his head: "One does not simply 'activate' the Northern Lights!" she stated as the elevator stopped. They reached a room with a huge Earth Globe rotating slowly at its center, shining of thousands little lights. In the room there were already two yetis and Jack.

"Ehi!" he called as soon as he saw her "How are you feeling?"

"Awful" she replied "How the hell did you arrive here?"

"I told you, I can fly. And I pretty fast too…"

"Right…" she muttered, then faced the Globe: "What is this?"

"This is…the Globe!" North opened his arms "It shows every child in the world, every child who believes" he explained

Ivy approached the structure; the lights were hypnotizing: some of them were fixed, but some new popped out endlessly, while others went out. Most of them, however, were flickering like broken bulbs.

"They're constantly changing" she pointed out.

"Well, as children get older, they start focusing on their life instead of childish games and fantasies. Once a kid stops believing, it's hard for him to start again" North said with melancholy "Very few people keep on believing long past adolescence and into adulthood" he looked at Ivy "We call them Children at Heart"

There were few seconds of silence, then Ivy asked: "What about me? And what is this 'problem' you talked about earlier?"

North sighed: "Few months ago, many lights on the globe started flickering: we were worried children were losing their belief, but it lasted for months. It never happened before, we don't know what that means. Then last night Jack came saying a non-believer became able to see him" he pointed at her "You. I suspected from first moment you were a flickering light, and I decided to bring you here to have proof". North looked at the Pole in the Globe: a single little light flickered there.

"All right" Ivy muttered "Well, could it be it's because I know you're here…but I also know that you can't possibly exist?" she tried.

North looked interested: "Why we can't exist? We're in front of you!"

"Oh, this is probably some kind of weird, long dream…" Ivy dismissed it "It's 21st century, in case you didn't notice: scientific research can explain pretty much anything. There are even proofs of your inexistence…"

"There she goes again…" Jack laughed.

"Oh, really?" North said "What proofs?"

Ivy smirked, at least this was going to be funny: "All right. To begin with: no known species of reindeer can fly. Ok, there are still 300,000 species of organisms yet to be classified, but I bet most of them are insects and germs"

"They're common reindeers, my magic makes them fly" North replied, Ivy sent him a glance to shut him up. Jack sat down, determined to enjoy the debate, along with some yetis.

"Then, there are about 400 million children, assumed as people under the age of eighteen, around the world. At an average census of 4 children per household, that's only 100 million homes. I presume there is at least one nice child in each" she continued.

North nodded.

"Thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the Earth you've got 31 hours of Christmas to work with. This works out…about 820 visits per second"

The man looked confused: "Well…" he tried to start, uselessy.

"You have 1/1,000th of a second to park, hop out of sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings"

"That's not…"

Ivy continued, unstoppable: "distribute the presents or the coal under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, hop back into the sleigh and move to the next house"

"I…"

"This means you must travel at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound"

"This…" North started to look angry

"Presuming the payload of the sleigh, reindeer, present and you around 300,000 tons, the speed creates an enormous air resistance. The entire reindeer team would burst into flame almost instantaneously"

"But…"

Ivy stared at him "I'll be generous and I'll say a…250-pound…Santa would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by a 4,000,000 pounds of force. In conclusion, if Santa ever did deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now. Merry Christmas" she concluded.

Few moments of silence passed, then North roared: "You definitely on Naughty List!"

Jack burst out laughing, Ivy suppressed a smile: "I don't give a damn" she said.

North was about to reply, but then he sighed as he walked towards the Globe: "If children start to think like you, our future is dark…"

"Children don't usually think like me" she replied "Nor do my peers, I'm extremely skeptic for my age"

"Why that?" North asked, but Ivy simply shrugged, without replying.

"Is that a human?" a new voice caught the girl's attention. She turned back to face a giant rabbit walking on two feet: "Is that a bunny?" she echoed, shocked.

"Welcome, Bunnymund!" North said "Glad you came"

The bunny walked (jumped) past Ivy: "I'm surpris'd: a meeting so close to Christmas, what da hell happen'd?" he spoke in a strong Australian accent, Ivy started to understand why Jack called him a kangaroo. "Oh, ehi, Frostbite!" he exclaimed noticing Jack.

"If you just arrived a bit earlier, Bunny!" the boy exclaimed "You missed a great moment"

"What?" the bunny asked, but the answer was interrupted by a new female voice: "North! I saw the Lights, is something wrong?"

The creature that just entered the Globe Room was a sort of human-hummingbird hybrid, all of her body, except her face and hands, was covered in green and blue feathers. Ivy stared in awe, now _that_ was a proper fairy, finally her mind was doing something right.

"Ehi, Tooth" Jack said "Nothing so serious"

"Then why are we here?" she wondered, without seeing Ivy.

The last Guardian arrived in that moment, on what looked like a golden airplane made of sand. The small pudgy man looked like he was dressed with robes of that same sand.

"Sandman! Toothiana!" North greeted them "Thank you for coming, my fellow Guardians. The reason I summoned you is because Jack could have found a solution to our problems."

"Could have?!" he repeated, upset.

Ivy chuckled and the Guardians' eyes fixed on her. The fairy put a hand on her mouth, the Sandman instead looked immediately at Jack, a sand question mark appeared on his head. Jack nodded, then the Sandman looked at Ivy again with a warm smile.

"Yeah, I was about to ask you, mate" Bunnymund started "What is a grown up human doing here?"

"Is she a child at heart?" Toothiana wondered.

North shook his head: "She can see us, but she not believes" he replied "She's a flickering light"

"_She_'s still here, you know?" Ivy interrupted him.

"Do ya see all five of us?" the bunny asked her right, Ivy nodded. "And ya still don't believe?!" he exclaimed, exasperated.

"She thinks it's all a dream" Jack explained.

"Yeah, there's no way a…" she started, but North interrupted her: "Enough!" he shouted. Ivy smirked when the last arrived looked at him with confusion.

"I'm busy preparing Christmas" the man told them then "So I'll ask you to find out why or how she sees us, as soon as possible".

"How?" the fairy asked.

"No idea" North replied after a moment.

"What?! Are you serious, mate?" Bunnymund exclaimed.

"I can search for her teeth, if it helps…" Toothiana suggested.

"Probably it does" Jack replied "But where will she stay? Don't look at me, I don't even have a proper 'place'..."

Ivy looked at him, so she wasn't going home soon. Well, small problem, since she was going back as soon as she woke up.

"Don't even think about the Warren" Bunnymund scoffed "It's not like I've got any spare rooms"

North sighed, it was obvious it would end like this: "All right" he looked at Ivy "You can stay here as long as you don't interfere with work"

" 'kay with that" she answered in a bored tone.

"I'll attend her to a spare room then" Jack stood on his feet. He offered his arm to Ivy but she didn't hold it, then they walked together towards the lift.

"Can I go now? It's too cold here" Bunnymund tapped a paw on the floor and a strange tunnel opened, even if they weren't on the ground floor, it looked like it dived into the soil. Ivy watched the giant bunny disappear into the hole, that closed right after.

Toothiana flew away as well, not before asking Ivy her full name (Yvonne Caoimhe Summer), then finally Sandman left as well and the girl was able to follow Jack to the guest rooms.

Her room was pretty big, with a big bed with red quilts, a door that led to a small bathroom and shelves full of books. Opposite to the door there was a large window: outside it was dark and she could almost hear the wind blow.

Yeah, this was a pretty weird dream.

**This chapter was difficult to write.**

**First: it's not simple to stay In Character when you deal with many character you didn't create; that's why I often create OCs.**

**Second: the accents. I'm not English-speaking, so I still have some difficulties in even hearing accents, imagine in writing them. I've watched the movie about 10 times and read a lot of fanfictions, and I still don't know how to properly write an Australian accent. Suggestions are welcomed.**

**I don't know when the third chapter's going out. I'm a bit busy fangirling right now…**

**First: The Doctor Who Christmas Special and all the Sherlock Holmes, Game of Thrones, Mary Poppings and Rise of the Guardians references make my head so confusedly happy.**

**Second: I've found online that a fourth book from William Joyce is coming out, The Sandman, and it is going to feature Jackson Overland Frost. Jack is going to be in the books. ****Jack is going to be in the books.**** Jack is gonna meet that-character-I-will-only-name-in-the-next-chapter-that-I-love-so-much. I don't think I can anymore. I'm done. I'll be done for a while.**

**Coming Next: Fairytale, in which Ivy starts to accept the truth.**


	3. Fairytale

_Chapter 3 – Fairytale_

This wasn't a dream at all.

When Ivy woke up, sure to be in her bedroom or in the hospital room at least, and found herself face to face to a hairy yeti serving her breakfast instead, her mind simply gave up rationalizing the last events as a part of a dream.

The first thing she felt was excitement: she was at the North Pole, in Santa Claus' Workshop, a place every child on Earth dreamed of. She met legendary creatures called The Guardians, that she thought could only live in fairytales.

The second thing she felt was fear: she left the hospital room without telling anyone. Her last conversation with Zach was interrupted abruptly; she didn't leave a message, nor a letter. Not caring about being in her pajamas, she ignored the yeti and ran outside the room.

She didn't have the slightest idea of what time it was, but outside it was still dark. The girl ran through the yetis and elves, asking everyone where she could find Santa. Thankfully, a yeti finally decided to guide her towards a room full of letters written in every language. North was sitting on a big chair, reading them as fast as he could and writing something on a long piece of paper a group of elves was holding.

The yeti opened the door all of a sudden, shouting something unintelligible.

"I told you to knock! Is so difficult?!" North exclaimed, then seemed to notice Ivy: "Oh, come here, girl" he said more softly. Ivy approached the old man, the yeti left and closed the door.

"Slept well?" the man asked.

Ivy didn't answer: "Take me back" she ordered, instead.

North looked at her with surprise, then sadness: "I can't" he replied "Not 'til we find out why you see us"

"Please" she begged "I didn't even tell my brother where I was going…he must be worried sick!"

"You had all the time in the world to tell him" North replied, without interrupting the job.

"Of course I didn't! I thought it was a dream!" she exclaimed

North finally stopped and looked at her directly: "You mean you believe we're real, now?"

It took a while to answer, but finally Ivy answered: "I _know_ you're real, but I think it's a pretty different thing from believing, isn't it?"

North stood up: "Globe will tell us" he exclaimed "Come with me!"

Ivy followed the man to the Globe Room once again, her little light on the Pole was still there, but it was still flickering. North rubbed his chin: "I don't understand…" he muttered.

"I don't have to clap my hands and say 'I believe, I believe', do I have to?" Ivy asked, worried.

North smiled: "No, that works in desperate measures only"

"Oh" Ivy said, unable to tell if she was relieved or more confused than before. Since North didn't seem to want to continue the conversation, Ivy did: "So, why is it so important for you that children believe?"

North looked at her: "Glad you asked" he told her "You see, we're called Guardians because it's our duty to protect some things in the world. I'm the Guardian of Wonder, Sandy, of course, of Dreams, Bunny protects Hope, Toothiana Memories and Jack is the Guardian of Fun" he explained "If children stop believing in us, we weaken and disappear, and along with us the things we protect would disappear as well…"

Ivy looked at the Globe again, understanding maybe for the first time the importance of what she was seeing.

"You think I'm a danger?" she asked.

North smiled and put a hand on her shoulder: "No. But what you represent is. If we discover what stops you from believing, maybe we can help all of those children as well…"

"All right" she sighed "But why do I have to stay here?"

North looked thoughtful for a while, then smiled: "So that you can see all that's to be seen! You're the first mortal to ever come here, treasure that"

"You answer really doesn't satisfy me" Ivy glanced at the old man "But you're right, I'd be an idiot to waste an opportunity like this"

North smiled warmly, then led her into another corridor: "There's something I want to show you" he said. The two of them walked to another small room, colder than the others, filled with ice sculptures.

"Oh, wow" Ivy said "Your hobby?" North nodded "Nice"

The man walked to a sculpture slightly smaller than Ivy, covered with a silk cloth: he removed the cloth to show a child holding a strange dagger.

"Who's this?" Ivy wondered.

"I want to tell you a story, child" North showed her a chair to sit in, Ivy sad down. "When I was young…don't really know how old…I was a really skeptic, practical young man. I did not believe in fairy tales, only in useful things" he told her "I was an outlaw! The best bandit in all Russia!"

"Oh, that explains a lot of things" Ivy commented, North smiled.

"But then, one day, I had a dream" he continued "I dreamed of a place that I had never seen, and I jumped on my horse and I rode all night through mountains and valleys. Then, while I was travelling, I saw a boy..."

The man had now all of Ivy's attention: "A ghost boy: he enchanted the rivers and the clouds so that I was able to ride on them. A boy made of light and mist" North pointed at the ice sculpture "His name is Nightlight and he's one of the most ancient and wonderful beings of this world"

"Nightlight…" Ivy repeated, as in a trance. She liked the sound of that name on her tongue.

"Since then, I became a Child at Heart, a believer. Since then, my life changed…"

North spent a while telling Ivy his story, while the girl ate biscuits and milk in the big chair. Outside it was still dark.

"Now I must return to work" North said after a while "Feel free to wander around, but don't interrupt the yetis, and don't feed the elves" he led her outside the room.

After a hot bath and a change of clothes, Ivy finally started her exploration. The workshop was even bigger as she imagined it to be: there were at least 40 floors, half of them underground, other than galleries and warehouses full of toys. It was wonderful, but many things were not as she expected them to be: first of all, the yetis built the toys, not the elves, who looked instead pretty idiotic creatures. Ivy had fun teaching them dance the Caramelldansen from her iPod and discovered soon they craved for food, that made them even crazier. Secondly, most of the toys were old-fashioned, so she was pretty shocked when she found out a whole wing of the workshop full of videogames and consoles. She had to beg a yeti for a while, but at the end she managed to get a Nintendo DS for herself. When she was hungry, she ate what was available in the

huge kitchen, when she was tired, she slept in her room or in a random chair.

She lost time perception soon, even because outside the sun never rose.

After many hours of wandering, she wasn't tired yet, but a bit worried, because there were no traces of the other guardians, except North. Ivy was particularly eager to see Jack again: she wasted the opportunities she had to talk to him properly about what she found and what she knew. Was he the boy who fell in the lake? Did he survive then? Or did he really died and he was now a ghost? Were all the Guardians ghosts? She was pretty sure North wasn't, even not being properly human either.

When she next bumped casually into North, who was supervising the toys gathering in a warehouse, she asked him how to find Jack or contact him. North laughed: "We're in the middle of winter time!" he exclaimed "He's really busy, probably he's wandering around the Northern Hemisphere, from place to place, bringing snow and cold…let me tell you something about Jack Frost: if he doesn't want to be found, he's not to be found".

With these words in mind and a lump in her throat, Ivy returned to her room and spent some time playing with the DS and eating cookies.

Then, suddenly, a yeti came barging into her room, shouting something unintelligible and managing her to follow him back to the Globe Room, where North stood, reading a letter.

"Oh, you're here" he smile as she arrived "Pack your things, you're going to Tooth Palace"

"I really, really hope it isn't tooth-shaped, you know?" she commented eyeing a little fairy, probably the one who brought the letter, flying restlessly around her.

North burst out laughing, then handed her a snow globe: "When you're ready, say your destination and crash it on the ground" he instructed her "I suggest you close your eyes, trip is always a bit wibbly wobbly" .

"Ok" she murmured. She was a bit melancholic to leave the workshop, but also willing to go on and visit this new place.

After a second, North smiled and patted her on a shoulder, then left the room, going back to work. The little fairy stayed with the girl.

Ivy walked back to her room and packed her few things in the bag she arrived with. Then grabbed the Snow Globe and whispered: "Tooth Palace?"

An image appeared inside the glass ball: mountains and clouds. The girl let it fall on the ground and with a flash of light a wormhole appeared; the fairy chirped as telling her to go, so Ivy closed her eyes and stepped into it.

This time she only felt a bit of nausea when her feet touched the ground, also, she managed not to fall.

"Ivy?" a gentle voice called. The girl opened her eyes to see the Tooth Fairy's purple ones.

Ivy looked around: the place she was in was majestic. It looked like a cavern or the inside of a mountain, but there were golden spires and towers all around her. Thousand of little fairies buzzed in and out the palace, making it look like a beehive.

"It took a while, sorry…" Toothiana caught her attention again, she was holding a small cylindrical golden box in her tiny hands "But we found your teeth" she handed Ivy the box.

The girl took the box, with a nervous laugh: "Wow, seriously? You're saying you keep all of children's lost teeth here?" she exclaimed "Isn't that wizard?" she added to herself, examining the box. On the top, there was a picture of a small girl with her hair in two pigtails.

"What for? Why do you keep them?"

"The baby teeth contain the children most precious memories: our duty is to preserve these memory and, if a kid is facing a difficult moment, we open his box to remind him the happiness there he experienced"

Ivy stared at the fairy with her mouth open: "…seriously?!" she exclaimed after a moment of astonishment "But…how? Is it a sort of genetic footprint?"

Toothiana smiled: "It's magic…" she started

"Yeah, I've heard that one before" Ivy interrupted her "But, after all, isn't magic a science we don't know yet? Fifty years ago, nobody would have imagined one could carry around thousands of music tracks in a tiny box, but then BAM! Here comes Steve Jobs, bless his soul, and magic is done!" she rambled "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was a sci-fi book, but nowadays submarines are a real thing. Even medicine was considered Dark Magic in the dark ages, especially if practiced by women and I'm blabbering, am I?"

"Just a bit" the fairy never stopped smiling. "Come on, now, open it" she told the girl "All you have to do is place your hand on the top…"

"Like this?" Ivy did as instructed and all of a sudden, the noises around her softened and the light dimmed, as images started to flow in front of her eyes.

**Hi, guys! I'm back!**

**Sorry I'm late, I have an exam the day after tomorrow, and I'm not ready as I should be, all because of tumblr and …**

**Some important news: differently as I said, this fanfiction won't be formed of six chapters. I decided to break this rule because they were becoming too long and I decided to split them in two or more parts. If things won't change, there will be nine or ten.**

**GreenArcherAlchemist said yes to doodle something inspired to this story, I still don't know when but a PDF version with images will be available by then! ^^**

**A friend of mine asked if I had a fancasting or "face claim" for Ivy and Zach, and actually, I don't. Rise of the Guardians is cartoon, I imagine them as cartoon characters. Plus, it's pretty difficult to find a couple of actors who look alike each other.  
If I must, I'd say, maybe, Emilia Clarke and Jensen Ackles? That could change…**

**It's funny that many of you thought that "Edward Cullen" and "that stupid beverage" were the references: they weren't! XD The actual references will be revealed in the last chapter's notes, now I can only tell you this: Supernatural, Lord of the Rings and Marvel were the references in the first three chapters. Are you watching closely?**

**Next: Once Upon a Time, we take a peek into Ivy's memories. And Zach is finally going to come back! **


	4. Once Upon a Time

**I AM SORRY.**

**I never planned a hiatus so long…but exams got in my way…**

**By the way, here's a new chapter for you all…**

_**Chapter 4 – Once Upon a Time**_

"_What did you ask Santa Claus for Christmas?" the old woman asked Ivy, leaning far too close to her face._

"_Mum, let her breathe" a young woman with flaming, fiery red hair and grey eyes laughed, while setting the table "I know it's the first time you meet your grandchildren, but don't scare them". The black-haired child who sat on the armchair, _she was so small_, looked a bit intimidated. The woman approached her and gently stroke her hair: "Ivy, sweetheart, why don't you tell Granny what you wished for?"_

_The child hesitated a bit before whispering: "I asked for Dad to be home for Christmas…"_

_The old woman frowned, looking at her own daughter: "Your husband isn't home yet?"_

_The ginger woman smiled sadly: "He promised he'd come and I know he will"_

"_I knew since the beginning he was a bit unreliable" she scoffed "You had to go and pick the American, hadn't you?"_

"_Mum, please! Not in front of the children" the woman rolled her eyes_

"_As well as that son of yours, while your daughter is a sweetheart, where is that little daredevil?" the old woman continued undaunted._

_Ivy's mother looked around, without seeing her son: "Ivy, where's your brother?" she wondered, a little worried._

_The child seemed to think about it before answering: "He said he'd set a trap for Santa"._

"_What?" the woman laughed, then took her daughter's hand and walked out of the kitchen to the living room, where a black-haired boy was placing marbles around the fireplace. The woman approached him stealthily and began to tickle him shouting: "Who's afraid of the Boogeyman?"_

_Ivy laughed as Zach shrieked and jumped away: "I'm not!" he exclaimed as he realized he was tricked._

"_What do you think you're doing, young man?" she scolded him "Do you want Santa to get hurt?"_

"_No…" he said sheepishly._

_The woman ruffled his hair: "Then, put away these marbles…"_

_In that moment, the doorbell rang. The twins' mother left them with their grandmother to open the door, she returned few seconds later._

"_Was it Tom?" the old woman wondered._

"_No" the redhead shook her head, with a strange smile. After few seconds, tough she shushed the children: "Did you hear that?" she whispered. The twins looked at her with wide eyes._

_The woman made them all hide behind a sofa, before turning off the lights. Few seconds later a figure dressed in red walked into the living room._

"_It's Santa!" Ivy whispered, excited._

"_I thought he was fatter…" Zach added._

_The man looked towards them with black eyes, left some presents under the tree, ate some biscuits and left. When he was gone, the red haired woman turned on the lights and another figure appeared in the doorway._

_Ivy and Zach ran towards him: "Daddy!" they cried. The black haired man hugged them tightly, then kissed his wife._

_Ivy didn't care about Santa's clothes piled up in a corner of the room: Santa Claus did bring her back her father for Christmas, that was enough._

_Ivy woke up with a start more or less in the same moment Zach started screaming. It didn't take more than 10 seconds for their parents to appear on their room's door. The man stayed on the spot, still half asleep, while his wife was immediately by Zach's side._

"_What happened, Sweetheart?" she asked, stroking his hair._

"_It…it was dark…and I was running away, but he kept following me…and he followed me home…and you and dad were not home…" he said in a rush. Ivy stared at him: she couldn't remember her dream, but she was pretty sure it was a nightmare too._

"_Mmh…" the woman put a finger on her lips "I think I know what to do…" the woman stood up and walked out the room, returning few seconds later with a small glass full with a golden liquid. Her husband followed her with the eyes with an amused look._

"_I know for sure the Sandman loves the eggnog. I'll leave this out of the window, so he'll come and give you wonderful dreams" the woman opened the window and placed the glass on the windowsill._

"_Who's the Sandman, mommy?" Ivy wondered._

"_He's a man who lives on a cloud and all he does, every night, is to stop all the children in the world ever having bad dreams" she told them._

"_Like the star boy?" Zach asked, remembering another story._

"_Yes" the woman said "But his cloud is made of golden dreamsand. That same sand that gives you the best dreams ever…" she told them, then started singing a lullaby._

"_Time to close your eyes  
Overlook the darkess  
And try to dream tonight.  
Not so long ago  
the world was bright.  
So take a breath and count to ten  
and maybe you can dream again…"_

_Before she could even finish to sing, the twins had already fell fast asleep, she left the room silently._

_That night Ivy never had a nightmare again, and the next morning she found the glass on the windowsill empty._

_Ivy was grounded._

_Nobody would have expected such a small girl could have so much strength, but when Zach started teasing her for she lost her first baby tooth, she started beating him at the point he lost one too._

"_If you misbehave, the Tooth Fairy won't leave you gifts" her mother said._

_But the next morning there was a quarter under both their pillows._

"_What is this?" Ivy asked as her mother gave her a present wrapped in silver._

"_Open it" she said, then looked at Zach "It's for both of you"_

_The boy leaned on the table as his sister began unwrapping the present, who turned out being an old book. The girl opened it carefully: there weren't letters on it, but drawings and photos of places and people._

"_What is this?" Zach wondered._

"_This is my family's storybook: my mother gave it to me as her father did to her" she pointed at a tall man in an old photograph._

"_But there's nothing written on it" Ivy whined "Where are the stories?"_

_The woman laughed: "Love, the stories are in the pictures and in the spoken words: they are the stories I've always told you and I'll never stop tell, so that they're not lost"_

_Memories passed, each one shorter, each one faster; fragments of songs, stories and games. Egg hunts, snowball fights and nights up late to spot Santa._

_Then the images slowed down and focused on a grey, rainy day. This was not a happy memory: everyone was dressed in black, even the twins, and most were crying._

_Ivy's face was blank as she held Zach's hand in hers._

_Their father told them they were going to live in the USA, in Pennsylvania, where he worked._

_Away from Ireland, the land of myths and fairies._

_Because there was no such thing as fairytales._

The next thing Ivy focused on was the Tooth Fairy worried look: nothing had changed since she opened the memory box. Slowly the girl brought the golden box close to her heart: "Thank you…" she whispered.

"Did it help?" the strange creature asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. Ivy nodded, with a sad but warm smile: "Yes" she said, "I…I've always believed in you, I just forgot it. I caged it into my heart the day my mother died".

The fairy gave her a sympathetic look: "Are you ready to go back home?"

Ivy nodded: "Yes" she answered. It was time to go back to her brother.

**In the next chapter we'll change p.o.v. and see the events from Zach's. I don't know when I'll be able to post it, soon I hope.**

**A bit of headcanon's stuff. Ivy's real name is Ivanna, she changed it into Yvonne when she went to college because she and her father thought it was strange, Zach's full name is Zakharia or Zachariah and it's pronounced in the American way. Their mother's name is Natasha, their father's Thomas. I never chose the grandmother's name.**

**Before they moved to America, they lived in Dublin, but their family, from mother's side, have Russian origins.**

**Next: Witch Hunt, where nothing is what it seems.**


	5. Witch Hunt

_Chapter 5 – Witch Hunt_

"Test 4-C. Sub-molecular sample 456. We proceed with a magnetic field of 0.03 Tesla." A young man in a white coat, standing in front a glass panel announced. Another man, sitting in front of a desk, started typing something on a computer.

The room behind the glass panel looked empty as a humming noise started, but Zachariah Summer knew this wasn't the case. He squinted, trying to see something, anything appear in the room, and for a fraction of second it looked like a small figure was contorting on the ground.

The humming noise stopped, as the man on the desk started enunciating the data gathered, Zach sighed with disappointment: another failure.

"Don't worry" a soothing voice reassured him "Your project is still young to have proper results" . In the room behind the glass, a metal panel came down, while strange transparent bars raised from the ground forming a cage, that was taken away by another scientist.

Zach walked away: he had been working in that facility for a week already. He should have started together with his sister, Ivy. But the girl disappeared the same day they got the job.

_You! What do you want, again?!_

The last words he heard from Ivy were through the telephone. After that, he immediately went to the hospital where she was supposed to be, only to find her room empty. Her things were missing too, everything was like she walked away on her own legs, but if she did, her phone wouldn't b switched off.

The young man was tired, and had bags under his eyes for the lack of sleep. His new work helped a bit, though: when he was introduced to Mr. Mercury by his father, he would have never expected to become the man's spokesman and to be allowed to use the facility's stuff for his own research.

And what kind of research! Ivy would have loved it…

Then, a week after that, he received a call from the receptionist on the ground floor saying he had a visitor claiming to be his sister. Without hesitation he abandoned the laboratory and ran to the closer lift, just in time to see it opening and meeting a pair of familiar grey eyes.

"Hi…"

The girl popped out the portal in the middle of a crowd: it was early in the morning and everyone was so busy that no one notice ad person appearing from nowhere.

Ivy looked around, confused, not recognizing the place. How was she supposed to find Zach in a foreign place? The girl checked her phone but it wouldn't work: she realized she had no idea how long she stayed at North's workshop.

A chirping sound caught her attention, and she looked up to see one of the small fairies in front of her.

"Oh, hello!" she whispered, careful not to be noticed talking alone by the people passing by: "Here to collect some teeth?"

The fairy shook her head, then pointed a little hand at Ivy, then at a skyscraper in front of them.

"Here to guide me?" Ivy corrected, the fairy nodded.

"Do I have to go in there?"

Another nod.

"Well, then" she smiled, starting to walk towards the said building. As she entered she immediately realized she was inside a research facility, like the one her father worked in, but way bigger that that.

Ivy approached the reception, where a woman just finished talking at the phone.

"Uhm…I need to talk to Zachariah Dean Summer?" she tried.

The woman looked at her with a bored look: "Do you have an appointment?"

"I'm sorry?" Ivy looked baffled "No, he's a trainee. I'm his sister…"she corrected the woman's assumption: "He should've started working here…" she glanced at a calendar, "…seven days ago?"

She had been away for a week? But it didn't seem like it at all: she thought about a day or two.

"What the hell?" she muttered.

"I'll see if he's available" the woman continued, not giving away anything that said she heard Ivy's last words. Then she grabbed again the phone and composed an internal number.

Ivy stared into void while her brain tried to explain the time delay: in fact, she had been at the North Pole during winter, meaning the sun never rose; but the fact that she had been exploring, sleeping and eating until she lost time perception scared her slightly.

Meanwhile, the woman had hung up the phone: "Fourth floor, take the lift" she told Ivy, handing the girl a plastic badge with the word "visitor".

Ivy stepped into the lift, followed by the tiny fairy, who curled herself in her jumper's pocket. The metallic doors opened again on a white corridor, where she saw a man in a white coat.

It took her a couple of seconds to realize the man was her brother.

"Ivy?" he called her, incredulous.

"Hi…" she said, sheepishly. The young man ran towards her and hugged her tightly, like he was afraid to let her go again. Ivy hugged him back, realizing maybe just now how much she missed him.

"Where have you been?" he asked, looking at her like he didn't believe his own eyes: "You disappeared from Burgess after that phone call! We called the police, we…" he stopped, almost crying "I thought I lost you…"

Ivy felt a throb in her throat at these words: "I'm sorry…" she croaked "Even if I wanted to, I wasn't able to come back…" she tried to explain.

Zach frowned: "Where have you been?" he asked again, this time waiting for a proper answer.

Ivy smiled: "Now, that's a pretty good story…" she started. But she couldn't even start telling him since someone interrupted them.

"What a surprise!" a voice unknown to Ivy exclaimed, a silky voice that gave Ivy shivers. A man around forty years old was approaching: he was slim and really tall, with tanned skin and very handsome features despite the grey hair. He was wearing a white suit with a golden tie and on his left hand he wore a big ring in the form of a golden scarab. "Isn't she Ivy Summer?" he asked Zach.

"Ivy" the boy started "This is Mr. Mercury, the man who offered me this job" he introduced him to his sister. The man bowed slightly his head with a soft smile: "My pleasure. I'm glad to see that you're safe and sound".

Ivy remained wary: "What…kind of job?" she asked her twin.

Zach looked at the man, waiting for consent to speak, the man nodded: "I was going to ask your sister to work for me as well" he said, "so, yes, you can tell her everything".

Zach smiled, turning again to Ivy: "What we study here it's what we always searched for, Ivy" he started with excitement "The source of most supernatural occurrences!"

"What?" she said, startled.

"Spirits, supernatural beings, Ivy!" he laughed, "They're real!"

Later, the two of them, along with Mr. Mercury, walked into a very large laboratory where several people in white coats were working, around the room were scattered many strange cages which bars looked like glass tubes filled with white smoke.

"I know…" Zach started "They look like empty cages, but trust me, they're not. Wait here…" he walked away towards another door.

Ivy looked around in shock: the cages weren't empty at all, but instead of them there were the strangest creature the girl had ever saw.

There were fishes with legs, a fluorescent bluebird and to her right a man in green not taller than an inch looked at his feet with a pitiful expression. The tooth fairy flew out of her pocked towards a cage full of fairies of her kind, who looked tired and sad.

"Here" Zach came back with what looked like a strange laptop, that he rose to eye level: on the screen appeared the room behind it but in shades of white and grey, and inside the cages appeared strange lights, smaller or bigger depending by the size of the creatures inside.

"What is this…" Ivy whispered.

"We call them sprites: they exist in some sort of subspace of matter and consequently cannot be seen or touched by humans: the gas in the bars contains them though. Mr. Mercury has been developing the technology to study them for years, but was never be able to see them. When I arrived, though, he allowed me to use this place's tech to do every experiment I liked. I'm this close to make them visible, Ivy…" he told her in a rush, but the girl was just half listening.

"What kind of experiments?" she murmured.

"Exposure to high pressure, magnetic field, reaction to some materials…some of them dissolve in the experiments, but their reactions are various…"

Ivy started to feel sick: "You're torturing them…"

Zach gave her a strange look: "They're not really living creatures, Ivy. They're more like some form of energy, like…" he started to explain.

"You're killing them" she looked at him in the eyes, with a look that was both sad and accusatory.

"What?" Zach was alarmed by his sister's behavior.

"Listen" she sighed "It's not how you think. I can see them" she stated, louder than she meant to. Several pairs of eyes turned towards them, both the researchers' and the sprites'. Ivy approached the closest cage, the one with the small red haired man, pressing a button she opened it and grabbed the creature with both hands, lifting him in front of Zach.

"See?" she said "I'm touching it". The boy stared incredulous: on the screen of the laptop, the girl appeared holding a mass of light. But also, around her a strange halo of the same light gleamed.

"How…" he started, but in that exact moment two things happened.

Mr. Mercury came running towards them, crying: "Zachariah, step away! She's a sprite too!"

Then the lights went off.

Two seconds passed before the dim red emergency lights turned on, but when they did Ivy gasped, because the expression on her brother's face changed drastically. She never saw him so full of what could only be described as pure rage, especially not towards her.

"How dare you…" he growled "How dare you to fool me with Ivy's appearance…"

Ivy wanted to reply, to say anything that could make him understand that Mr. Mercury was the one who lied, but the words didn't came out.

"And I almost believed you!" Zach continued "Where is she? What have you done to her?!"

"It's me…" Ivy whispered, while tears started to flow.

"LIAR!" he cried, starting to run towards her. Ivy closed her eyes but suddenly she heard a strange sound and the atmosphere around she changed. When she opened again her eyes she wasn't in the laboratory anymore, but in a small empty office. The room wasn't dark thanks to a big window, through which Ivy was able to see outside a blizzard started: probably the cause of the black-out.

"You could at least say thanks" an high-pitched voice made her jump with surprise. Ivy looked down: it was the little man who spoke. "You released me, I saved you. Now let me go".

"Who are you?" she asked after a moment.

"You can call me McGillygutty" he introduced himself "And I'm a member of the little people of Eire".

Ivy smiled a little, remembering all the stories about the Little People she heard as a kid. With a sigh she let him go, setting him carefully on a desk.

"Where did you bring us?" she asked him then, wiping away the tears from her face.

"Same building, upper" he answered, adjusting his clothes. "Fare well" he added, disappearing again.

"Wait!" Ivy called, but he was already gone. The girl sighed and looked down from the window: she was more or less on the tenth floor. Carefully, she peeked outside the office door into an empty dark corridor. A green light pointed at the emergency stairs.

What Zach said was not something he'd normally say: plus, the place gave her an uncomfortable feeling. It reminded her of one of these weird Area 51-like laboratories she often read about in sci-fi books.

First things first: she had to go away from that wicked place and find a way to contact their father.

Following the emergency lights she easily found a metallic door with the sign "exit": there were no lights in the narrow passage, so she started to walk down slowly in the dark. Ivy could hear no sound and the air was heavy.

Suddenly, a flash of light from above almost blinded her: someone opened another floor's door: "Here's the bitch!" Ivy heard a known voice saying, along with the sound of footsteps. Someone grabbed her arm tightly, almost hurting her, and dragged her back in the light outside the stairs.

But the words hurt more that the tight grip: "Zach, please…" she tried to say.

"Oh, you can't fool me twice" he scoffed, "Did you think you could escape? The whole building is full of sensors to detect the position and presence of the likes of you" he said while dragging her through a corridor. "I knew Ivy's disappearance had something to do with sprites, now you'll tell me everything".

Zach was going to enter a room, but the girl took advantage of him stopping and bit his hand: surprised, the boy let her go. She could have run away immediately but instead she stayed there and slapped him with all of her strength. Only then she ran away.

The lights weren't back yet, so she followed a trail of light that came from behind a large door into a very huge room with tables and chairs. It looked like everything was set for some sort of reception. The light came from the large windows: she looked down and gladly noticed she was on first floor. With a bit of luck she could jump from there without risks.

Unfortunately, when she tried to open a window, she wasn't able to: they were locked or sealed. She looked around in panic but there weren't other doors except the one she came through.

She was considering the risk of going back where she came from when that same door opened again and four people walked in: one of them was Zach, another Mr. Mercury. The others were scientist she already saw earlier in the laboratory.

Ivy was paralyzed, trapped like a mouse in a corner.

"Mom…" she whispered.

Then, all of a sudden, all of the windows opened all of a sudden, letting the ice cold wind and snow in. ivy felt a cold and tight grip on her waist as a familiar voice whispered in her ear: "Hold on".

Tears of relief started to flow from her eyes: "Jack" she said. The white-haired boy dragged her outside in the wind.

The cold and the fast ascent caught her unprepared as she fainted almost immediately, but a last image of Zach's desperate face remained fixed behind her eyelids.

**Eh, yeah, I'm still here. This story is not at all over, I'm simply too ****lazy**** busy to rewrite every chapter. That's why I don't know when I'll post again, just know that this story is the first one I'm actually close to finish and if I'll ever decide to stop be sure I will tell you.**

**You probably don't care but this story recently helped me getting out a severe moment of depression, and a fight with my moirail...**

**Speaking of which, GreenArcherAlchemist made some SWEET drawings for each chapter of Frozen Summer (see the story cover), she'll do the same for Child At Heart when it's over. Go see them on her DeviantArt!**

**McGillygutty is not a character. He's a plot device. So shut up.**

**The nerdy references are still there…go spot them.**

**Coming Next: Scarab. Who is the enemy?**


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